Downsizing, Decluttering, or Ridding Out: Whatever the Name, It’s Time to Do It

Check local charities to see if they have an annual auction you can donate things to. Such as animal welfare, fire departments, historical societies. Call churches to see if there are families in need of furniture and household items. Contact a local picker to see if they will take your stuff and sell it. They usually make 40% and you get 60%. If it doesn't sell, most times you have the option of taking it back or they will dispose of it. Vietnam Veterans will come to your house and pick up stuff. Call them to find out what they will not take. Typically if it is too heavy they won't take it. They usually only send one person out to pick up. They will take small furniture. Goodwill is a good option too. My local GW has friendly people who help unload your vehicle and takes only minutes. Selling on ebay or other ways is very time consuming but worth it if you have valuable items. I have sold a lot of stuff on ebay and mostly mail it but I have also done local pick up where people pay then come to the house and load up the big item. I have heard a lot of bad things about Craigslist and people coming to your home, but some people meet with the buyer at a public place to make an exchange of money. There are online companies that you can mail your photos to and they will put them on a CD and or Thumbdrive. If possible, I would sell or give away most of my furniture and buy all new stuff if I were to move into a new to me home or condo. Not everyone can afford to do so but if you can that would eliminate the worry of hiring a moving company and damage to furniture.

I had a bad experience with Craigslist and quickly pulled the item that was for sale. I would not recommend using it. Check to see if your community has a local online garage sale group on Facebook. I have had good success with that.

Consider selling your home turnkey--many people do this in Florida, then you do not have to move it. Also, many churches have Thrift Shops and they are worth using. Call ahead and see what their restrictions are. We never let a huge truck of stuff into our store due to the size of the shop. Cookbooks, Books that were/or are Best sellers, dishes and glassware as well as items like small kitchen equipment were always welcome. They also accept clothes (in season and dry cleaned or launder only and on hangers). Paintings of good quality and art work. Our Church is an Episcopal one in Georgetown.

We do not take electronic items of any kind including sound speakers and a BIG no-no is car seats--they can be dangerous. We also did not take baby beds of any kind or large pieces of furniture or upholstered furniture. Jewelry was OK as well as hats scarves, and table linens. All these places know what they can take and what they can sell. Consider what you would buy if it were used. No tears or stains and no strange smells like moth balls. A good thrift shop is discriminating, but then people want to buy there because it feels like they are buying almost new items.

Good Luck and be sure to get a receipt type up a list of all the items you have donated and get there current value from Goodwill or used items websites.

Getting rid of furniture and buying new sounds like a solution, but just be aware of all the cheap imports. I for one am glad I kept most of my furniture (better quality) in spite of all of the nicks and dings incurred in moving. I attempted to buy new light fixtures - what a joke, shoddy workmanship - sent everything back and bought fixtures made in the US. I paid more but it was worth it!

We downsized from a 5 bedroom, to a 2 bedroom apartment while our home was being built and finally to our 2 bedroom home. The children didn't take many things and the rest went to charities, friends or trashed. Like Fionnna mentioned we bought new for the house. What we discovered, once we started to unpack, we should have done a round two downsize, found many items we really didn't need or want once we got to our new house and location. It is a long process. Electronics, mattresses, and large furniture the most difficult to get rid of.

We had an excellent experience with Habitat for Humanity. All one has to do is check and see if they have a store in your area.

Another great place online to try and sell unwanted items is NextDoor ....see if your community has a NextDoor website and newsletter. This is a privately 'controlled' group access that has an administrator. You have to live in the neighborhood to have access and when registering to join, the administrator checks public records to make sure you do live there. So it's a great place to not only get neighborhood news, but to sell items as well. BTW this is not part of Facebook...google NextDoor for more info.

We downsized before moving to Florida and still found we should have left most
all the furniture and started new. The lifestyle and weather and decor are so different that we regret paying $&& to move large items we are now replacing.

We’ve had success with house sales, garage sales, Craigslist (and we only respond vis their email and find only those who call us are serious), & NextDoor.

As hard as it is to part with things, you’ll feel very liberated once you do!!

We started this process years ago. We are now moving to a slightly smaller home. One that is within walking distance to everything! What a relief. We can now downsize to one car. I started earlier than most people. I wanted to offer things that I knew my children loved before they already bought things. They’ve take pieces of furniture that were special to them and now have years to enjoy it. I, too, have found Habitat a wonderful organization. I save of our particularly nice things for the Humanine Society thrift store. While I only sold a few things I look at the donations we’ve made worth quite a bit for these organizations. I’ve never donated any junk. It can be difficult but really so much of the baking supplies and things of that nature I’m not going to use again. It’s true it is very liberating. My mother left a huge mess twice in her lifetime. Once when she moved to Florida then when she was old and moved back north. I swore I would never do that to my children.

I finally moved from AZ to AR. I downsized from a 5 acre horse rancherita to a 1/3 acre place. My house is slightly larger, but I did not want to bring all the SW style stuff with me, so I donated or gave away or sold it. I also want a more spare home, easier to clean, with only exactly what I want to live with at this time. Most of my outdoor stuff I gave to my goddaughter, including horse panels, gates, tin roofing, saddle/bridle, t-posts, fencing, flagstone, saltillo tile, my paint mare, vintage patio furniture, just a lot. Heavy furniture was sold to a friend for cheap - I didn't even bring my bed. I did move my washer/dryer, which were newish, and I am so glad I did. I gave away a lot to people on the reservation where I worked. I kept thinking, do I want to pay to move this? I moved via Pods, so I had better control over the move. Two useful measurements were, 1) Will this fit into my new place, stylistically or in size? and, 2) Is this item just so-so? I had already pared down the junque years ago, so this was selecting what to bring 1200 miles out of what I already use or like/love. Anything so-so went into the Goodwill box, which was became more as the departure date got closer. I must disagree that there is an end to the declutter process. I do not believe one ever finishes. It is a lifelong continuing process as we go through life. We are always letting go of things, always paring down, refining our lives. Yet, I agree that the "heavy lifting" of the declutter process should be done early enough so that one's later years are for fun, not for dealing with stuff. And I am not infallible. I am decluttering even as I unpack and settle in to my new home.

Do not forget an organization called "A Wider Circle" . They are in the DC metro area and many parts of the3 country. They will pick up used furniture and items and distribute them to those in need. They will not take junk only gently used well cared for used pieces. They were a godsend to a woman I know here who downsized from a large home in Georgetown to a small new one bedroom apartment. She told me she would even like to go smaller--to a studio!

As someone who has just packed a POD + shipped 5 extra boxes of "stuff" and is traveling with a loaded car from upstate NY to St Petersburg FL, I will give this advice. It was given to me by many people that have relocated and now I agree 110% with them!! Please note I loved all my stuff I put in that POD!!! However I am finding in the aftermath that I wished I had done one of these options: hire professional packers and get out of the way OR sell everything and start over. Except for my journals and art and photos, the other stuff can be replaced. I did not want to shop for new furniture once relocated, however now would have liked to have been more flexible with that. If you are as hardheaded and stubborn as I am, please read this message 3-4 times!!! Relocation is stressful, doing it solo is a huge job. Push the easier button!!!

Just moved from Michigan to Florida. Did not bring furniture with us. Still glad we did it but should have come down earlier to order furniture. Unfortunately, everything we picked out needed to be ordered. We have a few items from when we were snowbirds in Florida. We are "camping" and have been since late June. Bedroom set is being delivered Thursday. Progress!

Another way to bridge the gap between leaving everything behind and buying new: renting furniture.

Laney...... we rented a furnished home for a month. That gave us time to pick out furniture, washer and dryer. Having them delivered after we had sealed the floors and painted some of the rooms. Was nice and less stress painting and sealing the tile and not having to move furniture. Was also able to have the garage floors sealed and racks put up. Of course this was for a new build.